1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus that controls an optical measurement performed by a bio-optical measurement apparatus that irradiates biological tissues with an illumination light and estimates a property of the biological tissues based on a measurement value of a detected light reflected or scattered from the biological tissues, relates to the bio-optical measurement apparatus, and relates to an endoscope system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a bio-optical measurement apparatus that irradiates biological tissues with an illumination light and estimates a property of the biological tissues based on a measurement value of a detected light reflected or scattered from the biological tissues has been known. The bio-optical measurement apparatus is used in combination with an endoscope that allows observing organs such as digestive organs. For example, there has been proposed a bio-optical measurement apparatus using a low-coherence enhanced backscattering (LEBS) technique in which biological tissues are irradiated with a low coherence white color light whose spatial coherence length is short from a distal end of an illumination fiber of a probe and frequency spectra of a plurality of scattered lights are measured by using a plurality of light receiving fibers to detect a property of the biological tissues.
Besides, a technique of using an imaging unit to capture in-vivo images, analyzing a blood vessel in the in-vivo images, and thereby measuring a blood component has been known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-44491). It is possible in this technique to allow a user to easily recognize whether or not a blood vessel locates in an area suitable for imaging by generating an image of a blood vessel included in the in-vivo images and displaying the image of the blood vessel overlapped with the in-vivo images on a display monitor.